Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Definitely NOT one to one

It's initially inspiring, but once you watch the video for a bit, you realize limitations of processing power make the project impossible to complete at this time, if ever.

In the comments I found a pervading fascination with comparisons to reality in terms of structure and feasibility. God was mentioned here and there, but not that often.

What many people don't connect are the dots between what we call reality and the reality of God. The way to get past "infinite" space and the one to one idea of a Minecraft replication of the universe is to add another dimension, one that exceeds temporal and spatial limits that are intrinsic to us.

People have long dismissed the idea that God could have created all of what we know as reality, because they are operating under the assumption that God has nothing but our own parameters to work with. It cannot be argued successfully that God could use our existing computer and fabrication technologies to create the universe.

Some may commonly respond to that statement by saying, "Faith is for the ignorant."

However, is that the same way they refer to people who entertain impossible-to-prove theories like the Multiverse or Punctuated Equilibrium?

The 21st century has allowed us to look at scientific theory with more critical eyes. That vital practice is the long-touted superior and assumed approach of science. In other words, part of the scientific method is to not just accept a theory on faith, but to test it in a lab instead.

The latter 20th and current 21st centuries have both brought several scientific disciplines under greater scrutiny, most notably biology, cosmology and sub-atomic theory. This is thanks to ever-advancing technologies that bring specific parameters out of the realm of faith and into the real world of laboratory substantiation.

We can now see things more clearly with less guesswork than ever before. A great example is ever more powerful Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). It should no longer be disputed that had Charles Darwin had access to this modern technology, he would have been astounded at the incredible complexities of the cell, and reconsidered his entire core theory.

Back in Darwin's day, they assumed a cell was a simple blob of protoplasm. They had no clue it was so ridiculously complex. That complexity adds several magnitudes of time expectancy to the classic view of evolutionary development, far exceeding the currently believed age of the Earth. But that's a separate discussion.

What about this other dimension I mentioned, this possible location for God?

From a biblical perspective, we've been given a few clues about the parameters of this additional dimension (or dimensions, for that matter):

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." --Isaiah 55:8-9

For a long time, people thought that "higher" meant up in space somewhere, like the purveyors of the "Sky Daddy" fallacy. That's still a reference used by those who prefer mockery to genuine thought. I would like to suggest that "higher" is instead a direct reference to a higher dimension.

"For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." --Psalms 90:4

"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." --2 Peter 3:8

These both very strongly suggest that time as a physical limitation does not exist for God in the same way it does for us. So what could it mean to not be constrained by the temporal? This question often gets pushed to the side, because the inconvenient truth for us is that we can't possibly fathom something completely outside of our frame of reference for reality. We ask, "But wouldn't everything happen at once with no linear time to separate actions?" That's the best question we can come up with, exposing our lack of knowledge on the subject.

Physics reminds us that time itself is an emergent property of matter. That is to say, without matter to measure against, there is no time. Thus it can be deduced that when God created matter, he also created time (for us). It is possible that the physical matter of our universe is analogous to pixels on a screen, those being two dimensional as opposed to the three dimensional illusion they create.

The pre-destination debate has always centered around an unwillingness to acknowledge that there can be an absence of time. Specifically, there are objections to the ideas that God can know the future when we don't, or that God exists outside of time. But those objections exist only because we are incapable of fully describing an existence without time as a parameter. Time is a part of our existence and it provides a great deal of our reference points for reality.

"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." --Isaiah 64:4

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." --1 Corinthians 2:9-11

These both refer to the same fact: human beings literally have not heard, seen, or even conceived what the dimensions of God are actually like. We like to think of ourselves as masters of our domain, but that's the whole point made by the verses. We have no clue of any existence but our own. We don't even have the ability to accurately imagine God's greater reality. Think about that.

"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." --2 Corinthians 4:18

This verse points out that there is a difference between the temporal (subject to time) and the eternal (not subject to time). Even when imagining things like a multiverse, we must still use known parameters to form our hypotheses. There can't be a Multiverse unless there are universes to comprise it. A universe is an already existing known quantity, we didn't invent it in our imaginations.

"Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." --Isaiah 45:21-22

"But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." --Isaiah 64:8

"I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded." --Isaiah 45:12

"Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God." --Isaiah 44:6

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." --Revelation 22:13

These verses all speak to one immutable fact: God created the universe, the universe did not create itself. For something so utterly fantastic to have happened, God would need to have access to resources and technologies that we can't possibly access in our physical reality. Furthermore, to avoid an infinite loop of creations creating creations, apparently our aspirations to repeat the work of God are meant to remain impossible, because of the insurmountable limitations of what we have available to us in our subset of God's higher reality.

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? --Job 38:4-7

This passage specifically addresses the absence of human knowledge about God's greater reality. Some of the details don't even make sense to us based on our experience with our physical reality, and we have to imbue them with our own frame of reference, which of course renders them incomplete and inaccurate.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." --Revelation 21:1

"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." --Revelation 21:3-6

"And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." --Revelation 21:22-23

"And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever." --Revelation 22:5

These passages raise several questions, such as "How can we exist without the sun?" "How can a person be a temple?" "How can a person be the beginning and the ending of everything we know?" "How can anything last forever when everything in our universe passes away eventually?"

Again, this is the whole point I'm making. We naturally ask those questions because based on what we perceive as reality, these things all seem impossible. But even the ones who penned the scriptures saw that coming, as you can read for yourself in the next four passages:

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.” --Luke 1:37

“And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” --Luke 18:27

“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” --Matthew 19:26

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” --Mark 10:27

Last, but not least, another passage from the book of Job, in which Job himself admits the level of ignorance about God he possessed as a human being, after God himself spoke to Job:"Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." --Job 42:1-6

So basically, the man who the Bible says was the most righteous on the Earth at that time has the opportunity to speak with and question God, and what does he come away with from the experience?